Finger Lakes Trip (US)- Day 2
This was my first freeflying in N. America since emigrating
Having woken up early, I found that it was almost flyable. The sky was clear the air was no longer damp and there was a stiff breeze on the hill. It was not quite the direction needed, but I lobbed off anyway, turned sank and bombed out almost immediately in the short field. Mukrim decided to wait it out. After 12 years of flying I am still eager to be the wind dummy!
Cold, wet and hungry - take off is the notch in the tree line
Having landed at the foot of the hill I forgot waht Mukrim had said about getting back to the top. I tried going into the woods, but stumbled twice and decided to just hike to the road and follow the route we had taken in the car the previous day. It gave me the opportunity to stop in a 'greasey spoom' to grab a fried breakfast. When I got back Mukrim was ust preparing to launch. The day was brightening up nicely and camp was looking rather good.
Javascript needs to be running, to view this panorama in glorious 3D... More paragliding panoramas
Mukrim judges the wind strength to be good and prepares for launch.
Not so good! The direction of the wind means that despite strong wind there is little lift and he sinks immediately into the bushes beyond launch. Smile - you're on camera! Video of tricky conditions
I take the opportunity to set up and get a rather uncomfortable five minutes of flying with full speed bar in crosswind conditions. I land once more and see that Mukrim is undeterred. Unable to really circle in thermals without considerable drift Mukrim is reduced to gale hanging too.
Once on the ground we pack up and Mukrim charges up the hill faster than I can manage, I really must lose a few pounds; I'm in embarrassingly poor shape.
Towards the end of the day more pilots arrive, taking the opportunity to try out some hangglider harnesses. We trim the launch area of trees and hang around some more waiting for the wind to drop. It does not.
Not an epic flying weekend, but I did get to see some very nice sites and meet a great crowd of people. I will definitely be back to Finger Lakes in the near future for some good flying and great views. |
